Taize: Day two

Our discussion group has a Spainish woman in her early thirties, a Korean woman who is visiting family in Switzerland, a young German couple expecting their first baby in October, a Polish couple who have lived in the UK for the last 10 years and a Ukrainian man who speaks no English, German or French who has tried to participate by using Google translate and the few common words of Russian that the Polish family and he possess. The international nature of Taize is one of the real joys, but I find these days it is tinged with sadness as I am constantly reminded of the impact of BREXIT, particularly on our young people. 

We had breakfast with Brother Paolo this morning (who I first met 38 years ago on my very first visit to Taize – he a fairly young brother and I an even younger visitor). It was, of course, a delight to catch up (and to enjoy a breakfast that was more than the usual bread roll, chocolate stick and butter!) But he said how now if young people from the UK want to come and volunteer at Taize they need a visa. I have been feeling the pain of it as I have looked with Hannah for opportunities for her gap year and realised how limited they now are – no possibility of seasonal work in the rest of Europe because, why would an employer want to bother getting a VISA for someone if they have good candidates who don’t need them? With all the implications of BREXIT it is probably more important than ever that we find ways to connect with our brothers and sisters across mainland Europe and particularly find ways for our young people to have some of the opportunities that in the past we took for granted. I feel even more determined to bring some of young people to Taize.

So to today’s talk and theme. The passage was Matthew 6: 5-12, 31-34, and the theme was prayer. For many people coming to Taize, the most important part of their time here is the prayer that happens three times a day, But that prayer time also raises many questions about prayer, particularly the 10 minutes silence that is central to each of the prayer times. We can find ourselves wondering: What are others thinking about? What should I be thinking about?

Jesus’ thinks about prayer in a very interesting way. Firstly, it was important to him, we have many stories of Jesus waking up early to pray, or simply finding time to pray. So there is clearly something important going on in prayer even if we don’t understand it. In this passage there is the phrase that Jesus uses: ‘Your Father who sees in secret will reward you’ Matthew 6:6  This idea of God seeing in secret has been used quite often in the bible, we find it in the Old Testament but often more threatening. For instance, you have acted unjustly and thought you got away with it but God sees. But here Jesus uses it quite differently, there is no threat in this passage. This passage suggests that what God sees is the good things you are doing, there is no comment on anything else. God sees the wonderful things. We therefore don’t need other people’s positive affirmations because you have the affirmation from God. 

Of course we are human and therefore we are not indifferent to others views, but if we make others views too important and then we lose our freedom. Instead, if we look to the affirmation that comes from God our freedom increases, because we no longer need to please everyone else. Clearly we are not to deliberately provoke people but we no longer have to look for approval. There was a famous saying from Pope John (whoever was Pope in the 1950s? Not 100% which one!)  “Do what you think God asks of you and let the birds sing”. In otherwords focus on God and let the rest get on with it! There is, of course, something in the human heart that seeks others affirmation, and it is not wrong to do that, but sometimes we seek it in places that cannot fulfil that longing. God sees the good things in secret and through accepting God’s loving gaze we can grow in this freedom.

Pray means you accept to be under the loving gaze of God, that is the heart of prayer. It is about entering into a state, a way of being, as a non orphan, as a child of God. Prayer is when you know you are welcomed, when you realise you are not judged and that God wants to give you life.

There is an a line in the Lord’s Prayer and todays reading ‘give us today our daily bread’. What is the bread that Jesus is talking about? It is more than bread to feed our bodies (not less than). There is a bread that feeds our dignity as human beings, a bread that affirms life in you, that says it is good to be alive. We pray every day for the bread that gives us purpose and direction. A good spiritual exercise is to reflect at the end of the day on how God has given us daily bread, given us purpose and direction in that day. Maybe through a conversation, a beautiful sunset or something we have read, and we remind ourselves of how God has fed us and given purpose and meaning in the day.

Yesterday we reflected a bit on suspicion. In this context it is good to be suspicious of the negative voice in our head that says we are not good enough. That accusing voice is not the voice of God. 

When we listen to the affirming voice prayer becomes more interesting, a source of joy. Sometimes we read the bible to find out what we should do through a sense of obligation and maybe duty, but scripture is more than that and it begins with a gift. We need to begin with what God is offering rather than what is God asking, that creates a different relationship with the bible (and with prayer).

To finish with a few thoughts on the end of the passage Matthew 6:33 where Jesus speaks of seeking the Kingdom. “Strive first for the Kingdom of God and is righteousness”. God’s righteousness is a difficult word, phrase, for us to understand and it does not mean exactly what we understand by it today. Justice or righteousness for Matthew is more than social justice, it is a way of being where you become a reflection of who God is. We know those people who when we meet them, afterwards we feel as if know more of who God is, in them we see God’s righteousness.

Brother Emile shared a story about the Taize European meeting held in Prague in the 1980s just after the fall of the Berlin wall. There were 80,000 people coming to the city for the meeting between Christmas and New Year and the churches were not strong and the Taize brothers were struggling to find accommodation for everyone who was arriving. There was a woman in Prague who was a friend of the Taize community. She had 10 children, her husband had been put in prison for a while for for translating Brother Rogers texts for the Christian community, she was a strong and remarkable woman. She offered to take in 50 people into her home for that meeting!! Just before the meeting her husband rang Brother Emile and he said, I have one thing to ask of you, Brother Emile assumed he was going to say “Please don’t ask any more of us! We are at capacity” but instead the husband said “Please can we invite all the Brothers from Taize to eat with us on the 1st Jan”. When we think God can offer no more, God offers more. The righteousness of God is someone who offers extraordinary generosity, an over flowing generosity. 

In Matthew 5, Jesus says your righteousness must be greater than the scribes and Pharisees and he then gives examples of extraordinary generosity: turn the other cheek, give away your coat, walk the extra mile etc. It is important to realise that these are not commandments but examples. We do not always have to turn the other cheek, sometimes to do that is to be complicit with evil, sometimes we have to question and challenge the person who has hit us on the cheek. A generous righteousness calls us to discern which to do. What the three examples have in common is the call to do more than asked. There is something overflowing, above and beyond, that is found in all three and that is how we mirror God in the world. 

But how? We are just human beings? How can we be people who offer extraordinary generosity? Who go above and beyond? In the beatitudes, at the beginning of Matthew 5, Jesus says “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness”. This is really important, we haven’t reached it, but we stretch for it, we are hungry for it, and that is enough for something to begin. We don’t have to be afraid to be who we are, we may be a long way away but we can begin by hungering. Scripture starts with a gift, that is the good news that justice/righteousness is being given by God through Christ to us, and sometimes we don’t know where it will lead us. 

This passage also, of course, touches on forgiveness and sometimes we think that it is suggesting that God’s forgiveness is conditional, but forgiveness is never conditional, it is simply that God’s forgiveness can only really take its place in our hearts as we forgive. As we forgive there becomes a place in us to accept God’s forgiveness that was always there. The wrong done to us is not the last word, there is more to the story, more chapters.

The phrase ‘don’t worry’ is hard for those of us who worry a lot but it is about the priority of seeking God’s justice/righteousness. If we have our priorities right that can help us not to worry. There is something about putting things in their right place. It is not that we get rid of worry by some act of will (that isn’t possible), but maybe we can learn a way of living with worry, that doesn’t take us away from God and others. In prayer, we can share our worries with God. Letting our worries become God’s worries.

Jesus is maybe more realistic than we think in passage. There is a recognition of human condition but he is also trying to help us prioritise.